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Applied Physics Letters

Microwave-induced current steps in intrinsic Josephson junctions patterned on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 single crystal

H.B. Wang, Yuta Aruga, Takashi Tachiki, Yoshinao Mizugaki, J. Chen, Kiyotaka Nakajima, Takashi Yamashita, Peiheng Wu

Published Jun 14, 1999• 19 citations

Abstract

With a 10 μm×10 μm mesa patterned on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 single crystals, we measure the current–voltage (I–V) curves of a stack of intrinsic Josephson junctions. Current steps are observed at an equal voltage spacing of 4 mV when the sample is subjected to microwave radiation at around 7 GHz. With increase of the microwave power, more steps occur while the spacing between neighboring steps does not seem to change. The magnitude of each step depends on the microwave power in an oscillating way. Tuning the microwave frequency causes such steps to occur over separate frequency ranges, and each range is quite narrow. A temperature rise from 4.2 to 14.3 K completely quenches the step structures. Possible explanations for the step structures, based on resonances excited by microwave or geometric resonances in the junction cavity, are discussed.

DOI: 10.1063/1.123223

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With a 10 μm×10 μm mesa patterned on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 single crystals, we measure the current–voltage (I–V) curves of a stack of intrinsic Josephson junctions. Current steps are observed at an equal voltage spacing of 4 mV when the sample is subjected to microwave radiation at around 7 GHz. With increase of the microwave power, more steps occur while the spacing between neighboring steps does not seem to change. The magnitude of each step depends on the microwave power in an oscillating way. Tuning the microwave frequency causes such steps to occur over separate frequency ranges, and each range is quite narrow. A temperature rise from 4.2 to 14.3 K completely quenches the step structures. Possible explanations for the step structures, based on resonances excited by microwave or geometric resonances in the junction cavity, are discussed.

The microwave response properties of Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+x long intrinsic Josephson junctions have been experimentally and theoretically investigated. We fabricated a mesa structure consisting of 14 junctions, 50 μm long and 4 μm wide, and observed the microwave-induced steps in the I-V characteristics under irradiation with microwaves in the range 5–8 GHz. The step voltages were proportional to the square root of the microwave power, implying that the steps were produced by the motion of fluxons created by the microwaves. The Josephson frequency corresponding to the maximum step voltage was estimated to be 570 GHz. The step voltage decreased with increasing temperature, which can be explained by the decrease of the Swihart velocity. We performed a numerical simulation using coupled sine-Gordon equations and obtained a power dependence of the step voltage similar to the experimental result, and demonstrated standing waves of electric fields with in-phase plasma oscillation in all the junctions. These facts suggest that the steps observed in the experiment were produced by plasma resonance excited by the external microwaves.

We have been investigated the current - voltage characteristics of naturally stacked intrinsic Josephson junctions in mesa-shaped single crystals, having dimensions in the ab plane larger than the Josephson penetration depth, without and with microwave irradiations. In the absence of microwave irradiation, a gaplike feature and multiple resistive branches that imply SIS series junctions were observed in the current - voltage characteristic. Under appropriate conditions of microwave irradiation, we successfully observed striking microwave-induced subharmonic steps, caused by the phase-locked oscillation of a coupled multifluxon, with nearly equal voltage separations on the I - V characteristics of a mesa in the cavity resonant mode.

With a thin gold layer, we fabricated mesa-like shunted intrinsic Josephson junction stacks on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x single crystals. Instead of the multibranch structure and large voltage jumps often observed in conventional intrinsic junctions, current–voltage characteristics typical of resistively shunted junctions were obtained. Individual Shapiro steps were clearly visible with irradiation at frequencies from a few to 20 GHz. The experiments demonstrated not only the ac Josephson effects directly but also the possibility of employing intrinsic Josephson junctions in high-frequency applications.

Microwave-induced steps were observed in I-V characteristics of intrinsic Josephson junctions fabricated on an overdoped BSCCO single crystal with a weak magnetic field parallel to the c-axis. Voltage intervals between the steps under the irradiation of 12.2, 13.2 and 13.9 GHz microwaves were independent of the microwave power and proportional to the frequency. From the measurement of voltage intervals, it was found that all the junctions in the fabricated junction stack simultaneously produced Shapiro steps, assuming that the steps are Shapiro steps.

In a c-axis junction stack (10 μm×10 μm in a-b plane) patterned on a Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+X single crystal, we performed harmonic mixings between a 100 GHz signal and up to the 98th harmonic of a local oscillator at about 1 GHz. The dependence of PIF on V, where PIF is the mixing output at the intermediate frequency and V is the dc voltage across the junction stack, was strongly affected by the local oscillator power levels. For low values of local oscillator power, the optimum operation point where PIF became maximum was around zero bias, and typical multi-branch structure of PIF vs V curves were observed. For high values of local oscillator power, the optimum operation point moved to the high-voltage region. In both cases, interesting oscillations occurred on the PIF vs V curves. Our experimental results led us to believe that intrinsic Josephson junctions can be good candidates for high frequency applications and the harmonic mixing may be a useful probe to investigate plasma phenomena in the layered superconductors.